All this talk about such a sad day, the R-8B now discontinued. I say: good
riddance!

The death of the R-8B was a slow and painful one. The price crept up to
$1500 and it lagged behind the DSP technology of the last five to ten years.
It's platform was based on the R-8 designed around 1990. It was almost a
joke that such an expensive radio had a cheasey plastic tuning knob with no
"feel" whatsoever.
The radio was built like a Muntz TV set, lacking adequate shielding. It's
RF front-end was overloaded with a mulititude of internal birdies. My R-8B
had a hunk of printed circuit board crudely cut and mounted behind the
display board....a very cheap and ineffective effort at shielding. Drake
service and its service manager Bob Frost were in a total state of denial
when I complained about the internal birdies, some hovering at S-9 in the MW
Band.

I dumped my R-8A and 8B on ebay years ago. I would have loved to keep them,
but they just were not up to the standards of my (keeper) Japanese sets.

I am keeping a Drake R-8 (the original) as the best example of the series:
no birdies, no sync hiss, a real metal knob......

patgkz wrote:

All this talk about such a sad day, the R-8B now discontinued. I say: good
riddance!

Huh?

The death of the R-8B was a slow and painful one. The price crept up to
$1500 and it lagged behind the DSP technology of the last five to ten years.
It's platform was based on the R-8 designed around 1990. It was almost a
joke that such an expensive radio had a cheasey plastic tuning knob with no
"feel" whatsoever.

Are you looking to hear something, or feel something?


The radio was built like a Muntz TV set, lacking adequate shielding. It's
RF front-end was overloaded with a mulititude of internal birdies.

Huh?

My R-8B
had a hunk of printed circuit board crudely cut and mounted behind the
display board....a very cheap and ineffective effort at shielding.

That's not a shield... it's a heat sink!

Drake
service and its service manager Bob Frost were in a total state of denial
when I complained about the internal birdies, some hovering at S-9 in the MW
Band.

No problem like that here.


I dumped my R-8A and 8B on ebay years ago. I would have loved to keep them,
but they just were not up to the standards of my (keeper) Japanese sets.

The ones with the bad audio?

I am keeping a Drake R-8 (the original) as the best example of the series:
no birdies, no sync hiss, a real metal knob......

I'm keeping mine too!

dxAce
Michigan
USA

patgkz wrote:

All this talk about such a sad day, the R-8B now discontinued. I say: good
riddance!

The death of the R-8B was a slow and painful one. The price crept up to
$1500 and it lagged behind the DSP technology of the last five to ten years.
It's platform was based on the R-8 designed around 1990. It was almost a
joke that such an expensive radio had a cheasey plastic tuning knob with no
"feel" whatsoever.
The radio was built like a Muntz TV set, lacking adequate shielding. It's
RF front-end was overloaded with a mulititude of internal birdies. My R-8B
had a hunk of printed circuit board crudely cut and mounted behind the
display board....a very cheap and ineffective effort at shielding. Drake
service and its service manager Bob Frost were in a total state of denial
when I complained about the internal birdies, some hovering at S-9 in the MW
Band.

I dumped my R-8A and 8B on ebay years ago. I would have loved to keep them,
but they just were not up to the standards of my (keeper) Japanese sets.

I am keeping a Drake R-8 (the original) as the best example of the series:
no birdies, no sync hiss, a real metal knob......

One other point... Drake never made an R-8, an R-8A or an R-8B.

If you have ever looked at the front of any one of those sets you'd soon be able
to see that they are the R8, R8A and R8B.

dxAce
Michigan
USA

David Eduardo wrote:
"patgkz" wrote in message
...
All this talk about such a sad day, the R-8B now discontinued. I
say:
good riddance!

The death of the R-8B was a slow and painful one. The price crept
up to
$1500 and it lagged behind the DSP technology of the last five to
ten
years. It's platform was based on the R-8 designed around 1990.

Probably the best AM DX receiver even today is the R-390 made by
Collins or
Hammarlund. Hollow state, an alignment nightmare, but the best
receiver I
have ever used. DSP is just another way of doing things, and not, in
every
case, the best.

R-390's were manufactured by Collins and Motorola.............PERIOD!

R-390A's were manufactured by Collins, Motorola, Capehart Corp.,
Stewart Warner Corp., Amelco, Inc., Teledyne Systems,
Teledyne/Imperial, Fowler Industries, Dittmore-Freimuth (built by EAC),
EAC (Electronics Assistance Corp.)which was a division of Hammarlund in
it's later years. But, Hammarlund "NEVER" built R-390's.

Just wanted to set the record straight.

Les Locklear
Monitoring since ' 57
Monitoring from the Gulf of Mexico
Hammarlund R-274C/FRR (SP-600JX-14)
R-1051B/URR
Ten Tec RX-340
Alpha Delta Sloper
Quantum QX Loop
Various Longwires
CU-2279/BRC Multicoupler
http://www.hammarlund.info/homepage.html

§ Dr. Artaud § wrote:

running dogg wrote in :

Visit the Yaesu homepage and look at the current offerings. The FRG-100
is no longer listed. I do believe that I have seen articles discussing
the discontinuation of this superb receiver.

Passport says that Yaesu makes a "VR-5000" tabletop, which the review
indicates is far below the classic Frogs.

Can you say Palstar? Hopefully they will continue their fine R30 and Icom
will continue the R-75, but who knows. Too many radios are being
discontinued at nearly the same time.

Icom currently seems to have the most tabletops on the market, if
Passport is any indication.

Fortunately, HAM transceivers allow the same reception capabilities and
offers transmission for those properly licensed. I don't believe that HAM
transceivers are going anywhere soon, so there will be an abundance of
superlative tabletop models for SWLing for years to come at the same
price of Shortwave only tabletops.

I believe that in the US only licensed hams can own transceivers. The
ham community is pretty tight fisted with their existing rigs, many
making you show them your license before they let you buy their rig.
This is apparently done to combat pirates, which the hams view as
threatening their spectrum (although since hobby broadcasting is
illegal, it's hard to see how).

(snip)

""Tag Line Sent In Of The Week, Month, Whatever...
"I am confused. I thought that streaming internet audio and satellite
radio was available everywhere and at anytime. Isn't real radio simply
obsolete....like smoke signals. I am so confused." Singapo 6,000
Radio Sets Collected For Tsunami Victims." "

You know that you've been living in a civilized nation for too long when
you are capable of making an asinine statement as above. Yes Virginia,
not every nitwit in the world is carrying a laptop computer, an IPOD, or
whatever. Sheesh. These people imagine the world's poor people buying
computers, subscribing to satellite services, and maintaining ISP
connections. All the while looking for the bodies of their deceased
relatives and friends. Common folks, there are more than 6,000,000,000
people on this planet, not everyone lives like you. Most live in squalid
conditions, the possession of a radio to hear local and worldly events
and music is probably quite a pleasure.

It also follows that those people can't afford a $1500 radio, but CAN
afford a $50 Degen or Tecsun. Gee, I wonder why tabletops are being
pulled from the market while cheap China made portables are showing
strong sales? I DO wonder what the most common SW radio is in the third
world. I've seen footage of Iraqis listening to old European tube SW
radios. The movie The Killing Fields showed the camp escapees listening
to such a radio. I would figure that probably old Grundigs, Telefunkens
and Phillips's are the most common SW radios, except in the old Soviet
Bloc where the state made radios would be the most common.

And don't believe that the desire to go to the digital modes is for your
pleasure. Think about it, the satellite services will ultimately be
controlled by the Government and, sooner or later, once your hooked, by
the advertisers. Shortwave is a thorn in the side of most Governments,
since other countries, even on a modest budgets, can get the word out.

YOU try explaining this to our resident XM Satellite Radio owning
"leftist". I've tried, but I'd rather beat my head against a brick wall.
He doesn't seem to get that if the BBC ****ed off George W. Bush that it
would disappear from satellite radio.

Satellites have a footprint, you need to be within that footprint to
receive the broadcasts (more or less, I realize that part of the
footprint is the intended reception area, i.e. the supported area)

If a show displeases the government covered by the footprint, and the
government has the authority, they will simply order the show removed
from the satellite. The U.S. has cancelled an Iranian broadcast to
America, labeling it "intellectual terror". Easy enough. You no longer
get to make up your own minds, you listen to what the Government wants
you to hear.

And then the government will force through BPL not to give people better
internet connectivity (it doesn't) but to use as a blanket shortwave
jammer. And also to force the public to buy expen$ive digital TVs and
expen$ive satellite TV subscriptions to go with them. Of course, the
government will get its kickbacks from all this forced purchasing of
$3000 TVs and $600/yr satellite subscriptions. I don't think it's an
accident that the BBC canceled its NAm service around the time that W
cozied up to Tony Blair.

Perhaps more utility listening, more DXing for those elusive signals,
Pirates and Spies may be a way to bide your time while the shortwave
broadcasters come and go (mostly go right now, but who knows in the long
run).

Well, the small European stations are going away, but the big ones (BBC,
RN) mostly aren't. The BBC still broadcasts to Mexico in English,
probably their way of getting around the UK Govt order that they stop
beaming to the US. Only DW has totally canceled all broadcasts to the
Americas.


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On Mon, 14 Mar 2005 19:54:24 -0800, running dogg wrote:


running dogg wrote in :

(snip)
I believe that in the US only licensed hams can own transceivers. The
ham community is pretty tight fisted with their existing rigs, many
making you show them your license before they let you buy their rig.
This is apparently done to combat pirates, which the hams view as
threatening their spectrum (although since hobby broadcasting is
illegal, it's hard to see how).

In the US anybody can own a ham transceiver - though only ham's are
licensed to operate (or be in direct control of) the transmitter.

"Howard" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 14 Mar 2005 19:54:24 -0800, running dogg wrote:

In the US anybody can own a ham transceiver - though only ham's are
licensed to operate (or be in direct control of) the transmitter.

Absolutely! That's why I bought a Yaesu FT-920 some years ago for TP
mediumwave DXing and tropical bands reception, and found it very good for
receive-only. With INRAD filters installed it was even better.

My current ICOM IC-756Pro is a great alternative to a tabletop receiver and
a fine used value at their current worth of $1200-1400. The receiver is
quiet, the DSP "brickwall" filters are excellent, and the useful spectrum
scope is a helpful tool and fun to use. I don't care if I never use the
transmitter portion... the rest of the radio is a great value for the DXer.

Guy Atkins
Puyallup, WA USA
mod. R-75 / mod. IC-756Pro
Kiwa MAP / ERGO
400 & 750 ft. Beverage antennas

I never realized so many companies built those Radios.Thanks for the
information.
cuhulin

I sent it to one of my other webtv addresses.I will do some research on
those companies later on.I believe you,I like to do research though.
cuhulin

In U.S.A.Anyone can Legally Own a Transceiver or many
Transceivers.However,if one is not licensed and does use that
Transceiver or other Transceivers,Hams will track that person or persons
down.I do not own a Transceiver and I am not licensed to use a
Transceiver or Transceiver and I would never use a Transceiver unless I
aquire the proper license or licenses first.I do own some CB radios and
some old Motorola ex police/ex Sheriffs vehicle two way radios which are
Legal for me to use since they do not require and licenses.
cuhulin